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“Y’know, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year right?” Pidge says, glaring.
Lance blinks for a moment, eyes flicking to the pen clenched in her fist, then laughs, remembering he has the upper hand. “You should totally open with that. He’s so emo, he’ll love it.”
Pidge narrows her eyes. Murdering Lance only two days before he could cover her night shift for her might’ve been counterproductive, but Shiro had mentioned he’d be free that night hadn’t he? She could off him and still have her day off.
“I wouldn’t bother though,” Lance continues as he scans through her writing. “He’s an asshole, probably won’t get half this stuff.”
With a roll of her eyes, Pidge tosses her pen straight at his head. “Great, since you two have so much in common, why don’t you ask him out then?”
“Because you’re the one in lurrrrrrrrrrve with him!” Lance’s sing song teasing is so annoying she wishes she’d chucked that pen a little harder.
She looks back at her notepad, deciding that ignoring her co-worker and getting back to the matter at hand is the only thing that’ll put the butterflies fluttering madly in her gut at bay.
It doesn’t.
Of course it doesn’t. Lance’s pick-up lines are the most absurdly embarrassing sentences she’s ever seen transcribed on paper in her entire life.
Excuse me, but I think I dropped something…. my jaw.
This is so stupid. She likes Keith. A lot. More than a lot. And if Lance isn’t lying to make her feel better or just pulling some elaborate prank, Keith might like her back. Maybe just a little bit.
It’s hard to believe, she still can’t put her head around it, but if it’s true and there’s a chance… she wants to take it. She knows Keith won’t. He respects their friendship too much and despite his outer bravado Keith is just as bad with people as she is. He’d never suspect her feelings towards her even if she swung a banner professing her love for him in his face.
But that just excites the butterflies further because, yeah, they were bad with other people, but perfect with each other.
Oh no. Fuck, she really needs to stop spending so much time with Lance. It’s turning her into an emotional sap.
Pidge takes a deep breath. He might be an idiot, but he’s right about her taking initiative. And if some flirting was what it took to make a move, she’ll suck up her pride and get to it.
Are you religious? Because you're the answer to all my prayers.
Ok… no.
She’s desperate, and Keith is an amazing guy, but she’s already stooped low enough to ask Lance for advice. This was going too far.
“Nope, I am not saying that.”
“Aww come on, these are gold!” Lance says, seeming almost offended as he grabs the notepad from her and points to the third entry on her list. “You must be from Tennessee, because you are the only ten I see,” He reads. “See? It’s perfect!”
“Lance, he isn’t even–”
A knock interrupts her.
He’s here.
Lance grins and Pidge rolls her eyes again, standing up as they’d planned and going over to open the door.
She should be a lot more nervous, she realises as she crosses the living room. She’s about to follow Lance’s advice on her romantic feelings of all things…
This is going to end so badly.
She opens the door and isn’t all that surprised that the butterflies go crazy.
Keith’s confused. While it’s not unusual for Lance and Pidge to walk each other home after work, she’s never done it three nights in a row. And it’s definitely rare for her to greet him at the door with a scowl that could rival his own.
Her own apartment isn’t far from theirs and taking a stroll with Lance isn’t always all that bad when he isn’t being too Lance – a rare occurrence but not an impossible one. Pidge also may or may not have been leaving work with Lance more and more often just to see his roommate.
“Katie?”
Before she can say anything she feels herself being pushed out of the doorway and into the corridor. She most likely would’ve face planted, but Keith’s quick to grab her, his hands gripping at her waist for stability.
The door slams, there’s a tell-tale click of a lock and Pidge knows that she’s been double crossed.
She can’t even be angry at him though, because she’s in a position she never thought she’d be in, and she’s enjoying it. He’s still shocked but as if subconsciously his grasp on her goes form urgent to delicate and almost affectionate. If she just took a step closer and wrapped her arms around his neck and tiptoed as high as she could…
The butterflies went mad at the thought, thrashing so hard in her gut she almost suspected they wanted to escape and kiss him themselves.
These are the times she wishes her brain where an actual computer. Maybe then she could slot in a human interaction disk and wipe her stupid nerves.
Keith is more out of the loop than ever. Of course he is. His roommate not only just locked him out of his own apartment, but also shoved their friend onto him for apparently no reason.
“Lance, what the fuck!?”
Lance is laughing maniacally. “I dunno buddy, ask Pidge!”
Keith obviously wants to barge at the door but then realises he’s still holding Pidge and his face goes just about as red as his jacket. “Oh umm, sorry,” He says, letting go and fumbling with his hands a little awkwardly before deciding on just pocketing them.
Pidge doesn’t give herself time to be disappointed and turns to slam her fist against the door. “Lance.”
She hears him laugh again and then leave.
She’s going to kill him. She’s going to find a way back into that apartment and rip his head off with her…
“Katie, what the hell is going on?”
Pidge almost doesn’t want to turn back to him, but he must be about as angry as she is and this is technically all her fault.
She sighs. Well, she’s already here because of that incredibly stupid ignoramus she calls a friend, she might as well get the embarrassment over with.
It’s not like she didn’t just literally fall into his arms and try to kiss him a few seconds ago. It really didn’t get any worse from there.
She turns to him, breaths and puts her hand in her pocket to get the list of horrendous pick-up lines… that isn’t there because she left it with Lance when she got up to get the door.
Fuck.
“Umm, Katie? You doing alright?”
No. She isn’t. She had barely any chances before, but now she might as well just go straight home.
She can actually, she’s in the hallway. She’ll pick her things up tomorrow and pretend this never happened.
But then Keith raises an eyebrow in an expression she only ever sees when she’s rambling about software mechanics and she remembers that he’s here. And she wants to stay with him as long as he lets her. And the only way to make that possible is to just take one risk.
“Keith, are you from Tenassee?”
Keith frowns, not quite sure how to answer that. “What?”
Fuck.
“Umm, well, you render me speechless,” Pidge continues, racking her brain. “Like the Speaker of House in England… cause he’s not allowed to speak…”
“Ok?”
But his interruption doesn’t stop her. “And I think you’re really sweet most times, like honey. Which is ironic cause it never spoils and there’s probably nothing in the world that could ever make you change your mind about anything so I guess it fits? Kind of? I’d make a comparison with the fact that honey’s the only natural food that doesn’t destroy human life but that doesn’t correlate much… though I guess you’ve never destroyed anything? You always make it better. You’ve got heart, like an octopus, except instead of three it’s one huge organ that’s just so special it makes it hard to believe that the lung’s surface area is 750 square feet because I just can’t breathe properly when I’m around you-”
“Pidge.” Hearing him call her that instead of Katie is enough to stop her rambling.
She groans. She was wrong, it could actually get worse. “Keith, sorry, I just… I spout out random facts when I’m nervous.”
“Yeah, I know,” He says, a small smile finally breaking through his worried face. “But you have nothing to be nervous about. Lance is an ass–” he pauses as if something clicked. “Wait. He did tell you anything did he? About… me?”
Pidge is mortified. Not only did she just admit her feelings for him in perhaps the most ridiculous way since Lance’s last attempt at Allura, but Lance is actually right. Or, is he? Something about Keith? Does that mean he told Lance that he had feelings for her too?
She wants to answer, to say yes. Lance did tell her something and it’s been driving her crazy for weeks.
Instead she lets her instincts take over, steps in closer, wraps her arms around his neck, tip toes as high as she can and kisses him.
To his credit, it takes Keith a second to reciprocate.
But when he does, the butterflies stop, the nerves dissipate and all she can feel and think about is him. His arms around her, pulling her close. His lips, barely moving, but so warm and soft she can only wonder why she never did this sooner. It’s all amazing, he’s amazing and she never wants it to stop.
Then like an idiot, he pulls away. It’s over and she almost glares at him because she’s waited this long, he doesn’t get to stop kissing her until she tells him too.
“So, I’m guessing he did tell you?” Keith asks a little sheepishly, his face red again.
Pidge feels heat creeping onto her cheeks as well. The weight of the situation hitting her as hard as she was planning to smack Lance’s head when this was all over. “Yeah.”
With a huff, Keith narrows his eyes, mutters something akin to “that idiot said he wouldn’t” and is about to start explaining himself before Pidge cuts him short with a quick peck on the lips.
“We’ll deal with him later,” she promises. “You want to maybe discuss how to murder him over coffee?”
“Yeah,” Keith grins. “I’d like that.”